Digital Defenders: Book One - To The Gateway
by DraygonDrone
Summary: At a time when magic still strongly ruled the land of Media, there was a group of extremely powerful creatures. This group was well-known, titled the 'Data Defenders' - now known as the Digital Defenders. This is a Strong Hearts Are Mandatory spin-off, a work of two writers posted on one account. Don't expect frequent uploads, we have lives, sadly.


Prologue

"Stop! You're going **mad!** " the tall lioness cries to the opposing golden feline, wicked glowing eyes meeting the golden lioness' frightened viridescent ones. She pads forwards silently, leaning close to her old friend.

"Oh, come on, Friendship, dearest. Aren't we friends..?" her voice coos gently to Friendship with mock hurt and offense. She draws away to view her former-friend's pleasing reaction. As soon as she steps back, though, the black-furred panther to her right lunges for her, claws unsheathed and aimed for her soft violet eyes. She flinches back and the panther skids past, so close that the gold-and-black patterned feline can easily pick out the faint pattern on his side.

"Honestly, Courage, I'm not an **idiot** , I can't **believe** you thought that would work on someone like **me!** " She flicks her spotted tail back and forth out of restrained annoyance. "Well, my job here is done. I've received what I need. Goodbye, dears, I'll see you soon~!" Her lilting voice echoes in the empty room as she wills Friendship's key, no, now **her** key, a glowing green sphere, towards her and then runs off, calling to Friendship over her shoulder; "Thank you, dearest~!"

As she runs, she mulls over the fight and sighs softly, shaking her head. She wishes she could have gotten the other key from the dark-furred brat, it would've made more sense to with her original plan, but that had turned out to be… Problematic. So, she had decided against it. Even though, theoretically, it would have been much easier to get it then, except for the factor of him keeping it so close to himself!

She shakes her head vigorously, forcing herself to stop thinking about it. It's over and done, nothing to do about it for now. Up ahead, she hears soft, familiar pawsteps. _It's not those annoying sisters, is it?_ She silently leaps to a low branch in a nearby tree, the only giveaway being the slight rustle of the leaves when she lands near the base of the branch.

The pretty cheetah flicks her long tail back and forth as she observes the scene before her. From her view in the tall tree, she saw two young leopards, one with a dull tanned pelt who was, clearly, more mature than the other, than the one with a roughed-up stormy gray coat. The view from the tall tree is disappointing and dissatisfying to the large feline, she'd much rather leap down and steal their pretty keys, glowing ever-tauntingly.. She flexes her claws impatiently, but mentally scolds herself. _Not yet! It's too risky to try anything with those two, you're aware of how strong they can be together. Wait until you have more of the keys, or even maybe an artifact!_

She tried to recall the two's names. _What were they.._ She pondered over it for a few moments before remembering. _Aha! Truth and Ideals! That's what it was! What a wonderful thing, knowing their names.._ She quickly forces herself to snap out of her internal burst of childish glee at recalling the two _irritating_ sisters' names. Oh well, she could toy with the pair another time. She slithers her way through the tree branches stealthily, watching for anything interesting.

She soon comes upon a village, near their statue garden of ancient figures. Softly, she growls in disgust at all of the familiar, traitorous, frozen faces. One catches her eye, a fairly tall, heavily-patterned bobcat statue. It's positioned on its hind legs in a defensive position, as if frozen in time. That statue was obviously far more intricate than the others in the garden. The statue brought to mind a somewhat bittersweet flashback.

She lunged at the smaller feline, aiming for his pretty blue eyes. He falls back and nearly stumbles into a tree, rearing onto his hind legs into a defensive position in a desperate attempt to escape a sudden blast of magic from her. The magic dissipates too much before it reaches her foe, and, rather than the desired effect, it merely froze his form in time into a statue-like form. _How disappointing, I can't take his artifact if he's frozen in time like this.._ She huffs in annoyance at the delay and aggressively shoves the statue away from her in her anger. It rolls down the path a little, coming to a halt in a nearby clearing. Before she turns her back on the scene, she sees a couple curious animals from a nearby village who were chatting in the clearing approach the statue. She, of course, thought nothing of it, and left before she was seen.

Ignoring the memories, she watches as a group of people - who appear to be a class - make their way to the statue of the bobcat. Not being too far away, she can hear someone talking on and on about the ancient figures represented by the statues in the garden.

"...You know, dears, there's an old legend that this very statue," the teacher rambles, nodding to the statue of the bobcat, "is actually the sixth Digital Defender, the great mage Strength himself! That is, of course, only a legend, dears, a-" The teacher feels a large kit tap her gray-and-white shoulder gently. Out of the corner of her eye she sees white fur, and he turns to see a kitten with white, gray, and orange-cream fur with a large dark gray heart on her side. "What is it, dear?"

Another young kit seizes the accidental distraction to place his paws on the bobcat statue so he can see more of it. The female kitten with her back to the statue is about to speak when a loud crack interrupts everyone's train of thought. All eyes, even hidden violet ones peering between leaves, go to the bobcat statue. The kit who had put his paws on the statue leapt back, the fur on his back bristling out of fright. Everyone backs away from the source of the noise with bristling fur and narrowed eyes.

In a flash of light, the statue disappears and in its place is a dazed, confused bobcat. The garden falls into an awkward silence, as the bobcat catches his footing and glances around. He then turns tail and bolts out of the garden. The cheetah leaps out of the tree and races after him, running extremely quietly, despite the fallen twigs and leaves on the forest floor. She pauses when she hears pawsteps a little ways behind her, then creeps her way around and into a nearby tree. As she watches, she figures out that they're two of the city's guards, proudly bearing Media's insignia, meaning they were sent for good reason. _How curious, I wonder what else happens here if it requires special protection.._ She shakes her head, deciding not to bother with it for now. Creeping along the tree branches, she easily stays undetected, and ahead of the pair of guards.

She listens carefully to their conversation, and figures out that they're trying to hunt down **her** prey. She analyzes the situation, watching the two carefully. _Would there really be any harm in getting them out of my way..? It would certainly help with my.. Situation. If they get to him first, I may never get his key.._ That train of thought leads her easily to her solution, get them out of the way. With her resolve in mind, she launches out of the tree and lands on the guard nearest to her, and grins. This will most **definitely** be fun.

She hears his skull crack against the dirt path and grins with satisfaction. He can't even cry for help before he's out cold. She dives for the other guard, knocking her into a tree and then gouging sharp claws into her side. They leave deep wounds, heavily bleeding and causing the guard to gasp for breath. The cheetah watches with cold eyes as her foe collapses to the ground. She slashes her razor-sharp claws across the pathetic feline's eyes to blind her, partially just to add insult to injury, but also in case the victim survives, somehow. She sheathes her claws, and can't help but have a small sinister smile on her face as she pads silently over to the other one on bloodied paws. She lifts her paw, unsheathing her claws, then strikes them across the eyes of the unconscious guard, blinding him as well. She smiles wickedly and begins sinking her claws into his throat when she hears a noise, snapping her out of her slight trance. _Run. Don't bother to look._ She listens to her head, not risking a glance behind her before she races down the path. _How easy, I didn't even need to use my magic to take them down~!_

She disregards that train of thought, opting to clear her mind of the insignificant 'fight,' if it can even be **considered** as a fight. She begins thinking about her target. She'll catch up to that **little brat.** She knows she's fast enough. She easily follows his path - he was so confused while trying to get away from all the noise that he left an obvious-enough path, he was lucky she took out those guards earlier. She carefully picks her way past dead leaves and twigs, making almost no noise, and what little noise she does make is covered up by the natural sounds of the forest. She climbs up into a tree and uses the branches and leaves as cover, barely making a noise as she nears her target, ...who has stopped dead in his tracks. She doesn't understand why and pauses in confusion until she hears a quiet noise. **Mewling.** He's a hearing a small, lost kit. She follows him stealthily as he follows the sound.

They discover a small kitten with her eyes shut tightly. She's crying and mewling, hungry and weak. Strength takes a few steps towards her, not really trying to be silent. The kitten opens her eyes at the sound of his approach and shies away from him fearfully. He's much taller than her and looks like a dark shadow with the light not reaching his face and forelegs due to his stance of him peering down at her, a light from somewhere in the forest reflecting off his eyes and causing an odd red glint for a few moments, leaving the kit even more terrified of him. He takes a gentle step forward and the light casts on his fur, and the kitten relaxes a little when she sees his eyes are a gentle blue and his pelt wasn't drowned in shadow anymore. She rises on small, shaky paws and takes a hesitant step towards him, nearly collapsing from fatigue and hunger. He gently picks her up by the scruff and walks down the path to another village slowly.

The hidden feline was startled by the small cat, not by her orange-cream fur and her red-orange marking that runs from her small face to the tip of her tail, but by her pale eyes and the marking just under them. _You can't attack them - or him now. She's mandatory for your plan. The marking is so close to her eyes - and just look at them. Follow them, you'll need to know where to look for her first when she's older._ She silently stalks through the trees, watching her previous prey and her next necessity head to a village filled with all sorts of animals - from felines to rodents. She marks where the village is in her head, laying in a bowl-like shape formed by the branches of the tree she's in to finally clean her fur and claws of now-dried blood.


End file.
